Each MLB team’s most important offseason decision
By Nick Villano
San Diego Padres - Replacing Musgrove for a year
Tommy John surgery is just a fact of life for pitchers in today’s MLB. Teams just have to prepare for pitchers to need the surgery at a drop of the hat. So, it’s not surprising when we learned that Joe Musgrove will need the elbow procedure done, knocking him out for all of 2025, and possibly beyond. This is still an 18-month recovery process, so the Padres need a plan to replace his production in 2025.
Pitchers have been willing as of late to sign for one or two years. Teams have been hard pressed to sign pitchers to long-term deals unless they are stars or home grown. That’s why you see the deals that Blake Snell and Jordan Montgomery got last season.
The Padres have been a team willing to spend money. They have already been tied to Max Fried, a former ace of the Atlanta Braves who has become an afterthought due to his own injuries. However, he’s healthy now, and he might be able to sign a big-money deal in the short term to secure the bag.
The Padres will likely be on all the available pitchers, including Corbin Burnes and Garrett Crochet, but we think they will go for shorter-term options to sustain themselves while Musgrove recovers from TJ surgery.